The Janata Dal (United) on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of spreading rumours about migrant workers in Tamil Nadu for electoral gains, The New Indian Express reported.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh said that the people of the country were conscious enough to see through their designs.
“Just look at the people who have been booked and arrested for spreading rumours,” Singh said. “This is the character of the BJP. Rumour-mongering, and coercion of parties opposed to it.”
Over the past two weeks, several videos have been shared on social media purportedly showing migrant workers, especially from Bihar, being attacked and even killed in Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu Police and state officials, as well as fact-checkers, have said that the claims are fake. Cases have been filed against a BJP spokesperson in Uttar Pradesh, pro-government website OpIndia and an unidentified editor of Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar for spreading disinformation.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that false information was spread a day after he called for an Opposition alliance to defeat the saffron party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
On Thursday, Singh alleged that the BJP tried to raise tensions between Tamil Nadu and Bihar by spreading rumours, but failed, reported The Indian Express.
“No incident of alleged assault of migrants was found to be true,” he said. “A Bihar team visited to probe it and the Tamil Nadu government also looked into the matter but not a single incident was reported.”
He also accused the BJP of suppressing Opposition parties.
“The BJP has been trying to find ways to suppress the Opposition,” he said, according to the newspaper. “Just as old kings would carry out acts of vindictiveness to hide their mistakes, the BJP has been doing the same with the Opposition.”
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